Factors associated with the access and continuum of vaccination services among children aged 12–23 months in the emerging regions of Ethiopia: evidence from the 2016 Ethiopian demography and health survey

Child vaccination is an instrument for saving millions of lives. Only one in twenty children has access to childhood vaccination in hard to reach areas in developing countries. Although studies have been done on childhood vaccination, factors associated with access and continuum were not considered in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors associated with the access and continuum of childhood vaccination in the emerging regions of Ethiopia based on the 2016 EDHS datasets.

The two-stage stratified sampling technique was used for the survey carried out on 642 mothers of children aged 12–23 months. Access is the provision of services in shorter waiting times and flexibly at all times and alternative methods of communication. Accordingly, continuum of care reflects the extent to which a series of discrete health care events are being experienced by people coherently and interconnected over time. As a result, access and continuum of childhood vaccination are determined using pentavalent-1 and measles vaccination status of children, respectively. A binary logistic regression model was fitted to identify the factors associated with access and continuum of the vaccination.

Overall, 25.1% of children aged 12–23 months received all of the recommended childhood vaccines. Sixty-two percent of children accessed and 46.9% had continuum of childhood vaccination in the emerging regions of Ethiopia. Pentavalent_1 to 3 and BCG to measles dropout rates were 33.42 and 17.53%, respectively. Mothers’ formal education (AOR = 1.99; 95%CI: 1.20, 3.31), ANC (AOR = 4.13; 95%CI: 2.75,6.19), health facility delivery of last birth (AOR = 1.58; 95%CI: 1.19, 2.82), rich wealth (AOR = 1.57; 95%CI: 1.19, 3.14) and average child birth weight (AOR = 1.67; 95%CI: 1.03, 2.72) were positively associated with childhood access to vaccination. On the other hand, mothers’ ANC attendance (AOR = 3.68; 95%CI: 2.48, 5.47) and rich wealth (AOR = 2.07; 95%CI: 1.15, 3.71) were positively associated with the continuum of the services. On the contrary, children with rural resident mothers (AOR = 0.33; 95%CI: 0.14, 0.76) and small birth weight (AOR = 0.51; 95%CI: 0.33, 0.81) were negatively associated to the access and continuum of childhood vaccination, respectively.

Childhood vaccination status was low in the emerging regions of Ethiopia. Variables such as maternal education, birth weight of children, ANC, health facility delivery and wealth were associated with the access and continuum of the vaccination. Therefore, empowering women with education and strengthening maternal healthcare services might enhance childhood vaccination. In addition, the government needs to design a compensation mechanism for the cost relating to childhood vaccination to improve the access and continuum of the service.